A 60 GHz 64-element Phased-Array Beam-Pointing Communication

System for 5G 100 Meter Links up to 2 Gbps

Samet Zihir and Gabriel M. Rebeiz
∗ University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Abstract—This paper presents a 60 GHz communication link

system and measurements using a 64-element phased array
transmitter. The transmit array includes high-efficiency on-wafer
antennas, 3-bits amplitude and 5-bits phase control on each
element, a measured saturated EIRP of 38 dBm at 60 GHz
and scans to +/- 55o in the E- and H-planes with near-ideal
patterns and low sidelobes. The phased-array transmitter is
used in a 60 GHz communication link with an external up-
conversion mixers and a Keysight 802.11ad waveform generator.
A standard gain horn with a gain of 20 dB is used as the receiver,
coupled to a Keysight high-speed digital demodulation scope. The
communication link achieves a 16-QAM modulation with 3.85
Gbps at 4 m (full 802.11ad channel) and a QPSK modulation
with 1.54 GBps over 100 m while scanning to +/-45◦ in both
planes.

I. I NTRODUCTION
The unlicensed 60 GHz spectrum has generated a lot of
interest from a variety of companies and research laboratories
for Gbps communications [1], [2]. Also, the adoption of the
Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) IEEE 802.11ad standard
[3] had a large effect on the industry’s interest in this frequency
band. Furthermore, a beam-forming protocol is defined in this
standard which permits the use of phased-array transmitters
and receivers to improve the channel efficiency and system
performance. The realization of highly-complex phased array
transmitters and receivers in CMOS as well as SiGe BiCMOS
technologies has also increased the interest in this area and
made it possible to build communication systems operation at
relatively short distances (0.5-5 meters).
Wafer-scale arrays are an efficient technique for building
large-scale millimeter-wave arrays with phase and amplitude
control capabilities. These have been demonstrated at 94 GHz
and 112 GHz using 9-16 element arrays [4], [5], and at 60
GHz using 64-element (22x22 mm2 ) [6] and 256-element
arrays (41.2x42 mm2 ) [7]. Integrated phased arrays with larger
number of elements provide better directive scanning control
for high-data rate communication links. In this work, we
demonstrate the first 60 GHz communication link at 100
meters with up to 2 GBps data-rate while the phased-array
is scanning +/-45◦ in all planes.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the 64-element transmit phased array chip with
high efficiency on-wafer antennas.
10 dB gain control), phase shifter (5-bits) and two-stage
differential amplifier with a Psat of 3-4 dBm at 60 GHz. The
measured gain of the single-channel phased-element is 22 dB
with an RMS gain and phase error of 1.5 dB and 7o at 60
GHz and the details of the circuits are presented in [6], [7].
A 100 µm thick quartz wafer is attached to the top of the
silicon chip and has a simulated efficiency of 45% at 60 GHz.
The measured saturated EIRP in the far-field range is 38 dBm
with an half-power beamwidth of 12.5o (array directivity of
23 dB, array gain of 19.5-20 dB) and the array scans to +/-
55o in both E and H-planes with near ideal patterns and low
sidelobe levels.
The wafer-scale phased array transmitter is placed on a
Rogers RO4350B board (t=6.6 mils, r =3.48) and bonded to

II. WAFER -S CALE P HASED -A RRAY C HIP

Fig. 1 presents the block diagram of the 64-element wafer-
scale phased-array transmitter array built in the Jazz SBC18H3
process technology with fT =240 GHz. The array consists of
4 sub-arrays each with 16 elements and driven by differential
line amplifiers, transmission-lines, splitters and transformers.
Each phased-array element consists of a VGA (3-bits and Fig. 2. The 64-element Tx phased array board; a) front and b) back view.

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 Fig. 3. Measurement setup for the 60 GHz communication link.

RF, SPI, VDD and Ground pads as shown in Fig. 2. The 4.5 dB. Next, the amplified RF signal is down-converted using
Rogers board is fabricated on top of a 32 mil FR-4 board a Marki Microwave Mixer to 6 GHz using another 52 GHz LO
for mechanical backing and strength. Thermal vias through signal generated from a Keysight E8257D Signal Generator.
the RO4350B and the FR-4 board conduct the heat from the The down-converted signal is passed by a bandpass filter with
silicon chip to the backside. The RF input signal at 60 GHz is a center frequency of 6 GHz and a 3-dB bandwidth of 2 GHz,
fed to the phased array using a 1.85mm Southwest Microwave and is then amplified with an IF amplifier before being fed
connector. The 64-element phased array is biased at 2.5 V and to a Keysight DSO804A 10-bit Real-time Oscilloscope with 8
consumes 3.4 A, for a total power consumption of 8.5 W. Due GHz bandwidth.
to the relatively high power consumption, an aluminium heat For the link measurements, an EIRP of 32 dBm is radiated
sink and a miniature air-fan are attached on the PCB backside from the 64-element array due to 3-4 dB back-off operation
to stabilize the working temperature at ∼ 55◦ . for better EVM and low ACPR. The calculated SNR values
for the 4-m and 100-m links are 47 and 20 dB, respectively.
III. S YSTEM D ESIGN AND M EASUREMENTS Note that the receive horn antenna has a relatively low gain
To demonstrate the performance of the 64-element transmit of 20 dB (instead of the usual 23-25 dB) so as to have a
phased array, a 60 GHz link with 4 m and ∼100 m link
are built using the setup shown in Fig. 3. First, differen-
tial I/Q baseband signals with up to 3.85 Gbps modulation
and following the 802.11ad standard are generated using the
Keysight M8190A Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG).
The baseband signals are fed to a Keysight E8267D Vector
Signal Generator and up-converted to a center frequency of 6
GHz. The modulated 6 GHz IF signal is in turn up-converted
to 58-62 GHz using a wideband Marki Microwave Mixer (7-
65 GHz) and another Keysight signal genetor (E8257D) is
used as an local oscillator (LO) at 52-56 GHz. For an LO of
52 GHz, the up-converted image is centered at 46 GHz and
is rejected using a 55-65 GHz band-pass filter (BPF) before
the 60 GHz amplifier. A 55-65 GHz Quinstar amplifier is then
used to amplify the modulated RF signal. The amplified signal
is then fed to the input of the 64-element Tx array. The RF
power at the input of the phased array (1.85mm connector) is
0 dBm to result in an EIRP of 32-33 dBm at 58-62 GHz.
In the receiver chain, the received signal is captured using
a WR-15 waveguide horn antenna with a 20 dB gain at 60
GHz, and then amplified using a 55-65 GHz Quinstar Low
Noise Amplifier (LNA) with a gain of 33 dB and a NF of 3.5- Fig. 4. Measurement setup at 4 m: a) Tx bench and b) Rx bench.

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Fig. 5. Measured constellations for different modulation schemes, frequencies
and scanning angles for a 4 m link distance.
symmetrical link between the transmitter and receiver.
The measurement setup for the 60 GHz 4 m communication
link is shown in Fig. 4. On the Tx bench, the 64-element
phased array is placed on a tripod to measure the scanning
performance of the array with a communication waveform.
The Rx bench is placed 4-m away and a stationary horn
antenna is used. The measured constellations at different
modulation schemes (IEEE 802.11ad), center frequencies and
scanning angles are shown in Fig. 5. The measured transmit
EVMs for MCS6 (QPSK data with a 1.54 Gbps effective
PHY data-rate), MCS10, MCS11 and MCS18 (16-QAM data
with a 3.08, 3.85, 2.77 Gbps, respectively) are between 9
and 12% at 58 GHz center frequency. The transmit EVM
performance of the 64-element array is between 9 and 10% at
56, 58 and 60 GHz with +/-45o scanning angles in all planes.
This shows that the 64-element phased-array transmitter can
maintain a complex communication link at all scan angles and
with virtually no added distortion.
The measurement setup for the 100 m communication link
Fig. 6. 100-m measurement setup; a) Google map and b) photo.
Fig. 7. Measurement constellations for different modulation schemes,
frequencies and scanning angles at 100-m distance.
is shown in Fig. 6. The Tx bench is placed on the 6th floor
and the Rx bench is set at the far-side of the parking lot.
Despite cars and trees around the setup, the communication
links works well and the measured constellations are shown in
Fig. 7. The measured transmit EVMs for 1 GBps and 1.5 GBps
QPSK are 16.7% and 21.2%, respectively. For 1 Gbps and
16QAM, the measured EVM is 12.5%. The IEEE 802.11ad
link performance on MCS6 (QPSK data with a 1.54 Gbps) at
57, 58, and 59 GHz center frequencies are provided in Fig.
7. Finally, the performance of the 64-element phased array is
also measured for 1.5 GBps QPSK with +/-45o scanning in
both E- and H-planes with an EVM of 20-25% at 58 GHz.
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U.S. Government work not protected by U.S. Copyright